Richmond, Ky. – The University of Dayton baseball team defeated Eastern Kentucky by a score of 17-5 on Wednesday night to win its fifth game in its last six tries. Dayton moves back to .500 with the win at 11-11-1, while Eastern Kentucky falls to 14-12 on the year.
The Flyers got a big boost from the bottom third of the lineup, where
Michael Cleary,
Takahiro Yamada and
Benjamin Blackwell combined to go 6-of-12 with five RBI and 10 runs scored in the No. 7-9 spots of the order.
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KEY MOMENT
After falling behind 3-0 in the first inning, Dayton exploded for a seven-run second inning to take a 7-3 lead, marking the second straight game for the Flyers with a seven-run inning. UD added three more runs in the third to push the lead up to seven and the Colonels were unable to rebound from there.
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SCORING SUMMARY
Bottom 1: Eastern Kentucky 3, Dayton 0
Each of the first five Eastern Kentucky hitters recorded a base hit to jump out to a 3-0 lead, beginning with Will Johnson, who opened the bottom half of the frame with a solo homer to left.
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Top 2: Dayton 7, Eastern Kentucky 3
A stand-up double from
Jay Curtis was the first of three consecutive base hits, as back-to-back singles from
Michael Cleary and
Takahiro Yamada drove Curtis home.
Benjamin Blackwell walked to load the bases, then
Mitchell Garrity was hit by a pitch to force in Cleary from third.
Connor Echols singled through the left side to drive in Cleary and Yamada, then
Eddie Pursinger became the seventh straight Flyer to reach base with a walk to load the bases.
Tate Hagan increased the streak to eight with an RBI single and
Riley Tirotta picked up an RBI of his own on a sac fly the next at-bat. The final run of the inning came when Eastern Kentucky's catcher overthrew second base on a double steal attempt, allowing Pursinger to score on the play.
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Top 3: Dayton 10, Eastern Kentucky 3
Michael Cleary walked and
Takahiro Yamada reached on an error to put runners on the corners to open the inning for Dayton.
Benjamin Blackwell singled to drive in Cleary and
Mitchell Garrity walked on the next at-bat to load the bases.
Tate Hagan kept a hot bat with a double to right field to send Yamada and Blackwell home.
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Top 5: Dayton 11, Eastern Kentucky 3
Mitchell Garrity singled to lead off the inning, then stole second and advanced to third on a balk.
Connor Echols drove him home with his third RBI of the game on a single through the left side.
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Bottom 7: Dayton 11, Eastern Kentucky 5
Two walks to open the inning gave Eastern Kentucky a pair of baserunners and a two-out single from Ryland Kerr drove both of those runs in for the Colonels.
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Top 8: Dayton 13, Eastern Kentucky 5
Dayton loaded the bases with
Michael Cleary and
Mitchell Garrity being hit by a pitch and
Benjamin Blackwell reaching on an error. Cleary scored on a wild pitch and
Connor Wilson drove in Blackwell with a groundout to third.
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Top 9: Dayton 17, Eastern Kentucky 5
Jeff Steuck struck out to open the inning, but reached base on a dropped third.
Jake Silverstein singled into right field for his first career hit and
Takahiro Yamada doubled down the line to send Steuck across the plate.
Benjamin Blackwell and
Mitchell Garrity followed Yamada's double with back-to-back triples to add three more runs before the end of the inning.
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KEY STATS
- Dayton scored seven runs in the second inning, marking the second time in three innings of play that the Flyers' bats were able to put a seven-spot on their opponents after also scoring seven runs in the bottom of the eighth in the 12-5 win over Kent State yesterday.
- Five different Flyers had multi-hit games, including Mitchell Garrity, Connor Echols, Tate Hagan, Takahiro Yamada and Benjamin Blackwell. Yamada's three base knocks were a team high.
- Echols, Hagan and Blackwell all recorded a team-high three RBI.
- Michael Cleary was hit by a pitch for the 14th time this season to move up to tied for second in the NCAA for the category. The Dayton single-season record is 21 HBP, set by Jacob Spaeth in 2009.
- As a team, the Flyers have been hit by a pitch the eighth-most of any team in the NCAA.
- Each of the first five Eastern Kentucky batters recorded a base hit, but the Colonels didn't have another hit until
- Kyle LaCalameto made his first career start on the mound, but pitched just a third of an inning.
- Nick Maue was the first man out of the bullpen and struck out each of the first two batters he face to end the first inning. Maue retired all eight batters he faced and struck out three in 2.2 innings.
- Maue, Will Sheats, Josh Nixon, Bryce Hellgeth and Gavin Bates all threw at least 1.0 inning of scoreless baseball.
UP NEXT
- Dayton will host Massachusetts for a three-game set this weekend.
- Friday, March 29 at 3 p.m. (ET)
- Saturday, March 30 at 1 p.m. (ET)
- Sunday, March 31 at 12 p.m. (ET)